SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Voters today elected two new Syracuse city councilors and re-elected six others, according to preliminary results from the Onondaga County Board of Elections. The council that takes office in 2014 will remain completely Democratic if the results hold up.

Here's how the council races played out:

Council president: Incumbent Democrat Van Robinson, 75, who was unopposed, garnered 12,878 votes to win his second four-year term. The president votes only in case of a tie.

Councilor-at-large: Democrats Jean Kessner, 66, an incumbent, and Pamela Hunter, 43, a former councilor, easily beat out two other candidates in the race for councilor-at-large, which carries a four-year term. Kessner and Hunter each won 39 percent of the vote in a race where voters could choose two candidates.

Kessner, of 644 Fellows Ave., is a former TV news reporter who now works for AIDS Community Resources. Hunter, of 806 Demong Drive, is a local administrator for the Epilepsy Foundation.

First District: North Siders narrowly re-elected incumbent Democrat Jake Barrett, according to unofficial results, but Barrett will have to wait for absentee votes to be counted before declaring victory.

Barrett, 62, held a 39-vote lead tonight over 23-year-old challenger, Republican Joseph Carni, 1,595 to 1,556. There are 377 absentee ballots out in the district.

"It's déjà vu all over again,'' said Barrett, who won by just 14 votes in 2011. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the 1st District, 6,646 to 2,952.

Second District: Democrat Chad Ryan, 28, won the battle of newcomers against 25-year-old Republican Alex Walsh in the race to replace Councilor Pat Hogan. Ryan received 60 percent to 31 percent for Walsh.

Ryan, whose father, Ed, was a county legislator for 32 years, is a lifelong resident of the 2nd District. He graduated from Corcoran High School and SUNY Canton. He is a third-generation funeral director at Edward J. Ryan & Son Funeral Home.

Walsh has worked as an aide to state Sen. John DeFrancisco since 2011.

Ryan beat former Syracuse Police Chief Steve Thompson in the Democratic primary, even though Thompson had the backing of Mayor Stephanie Miner and other party leaders. Thompson remained on the ballot as a Working Families Party candidate, but did not campaign. He received 9 percent of the vote.

Hogan, who is retiring after eight years because of term limits, ran an unsuccessful primary challenge against Miner for mayor.

Third District: Incumbent Democrat Bob Dougherty, 62, was unopposed for his second two-year term. He received 3,158 votes.

Fourth District: Democrat Khalid Bey won re-election to a second two-year term in a rematch with Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins. Bey, who beat Hawkins in 2011 by fewer than 100 votes, won by nearly 500 tonight, 1,471 to 995.

Bey was also endorsed by the Working Families Party, which hired paid canvassers and coordinated an intensive get-out-the-vote effort on his behalf during the past few weeks.

Hawkins is now 0 for 20 in election campaigns. The 60-year-old graveyard shift worker at United Parcel Service has campaigned for a variety of offices, from city councilor to governor, but has never won.

Fifth District: Incumbent Nader Maroun, 66, easily won a third two-year term over Republican challenger Norman Snyder, 58, who made his first run for office. Maroun, who is retired, won 75 percent to 24 percent.

Eight of the 10 council jobs were contested today. Two other councilor-at-large positions, held by Kathleen Joy and Helen Hudson, will be up for election in 2015.